Before Breakfast-Questions-Answers

 Before Breakfast: Qs & Ans.

A.      Long Answer-type Qs (Word limit About 300 words)

Q1. Describe how far has O’Neil succeeded in delineating the tension in marriage through the monologue of Mrs. Rowland?

Ans. O’Neil has very successfully delineated tension in a marriage through the monologue of Mrs. Rowland. This theme of the play achieves universal appeal because, in this modern world, this type of tension is generally found in married couples. The sources of the tension are several, like unemployment, extra marital relationship and even ego-clash in married life.

Here in this one act play, there is only one character, Mrs. Rowland. She keeps on speaking while preparing breakfast and even when she is having it. She seems to be frustrated from her married life. She also utters as to why she should suffers. She taunts her husband by calling him a good-for-nothing fellow and a half man. She says that it is because of her they are not dying of hunger. She does sewing to earn some money. We also find that she feels concerned for her husband when she hears some groan. She thinks that he has made a cut while shaving his face.

There are several reasons for Mrs. Rowland’s anger and frustration. Her husband is jobless. She thinks that he does not go in search of job. He wastes his time with his useless friends in writing useless poems and short stories. He is a drunkard and is in the habit of pawning the valuables of the house. Recently, he has pawned a watch. There is nothing in the house now to know about time. Another thing that irritates Mrs. Rowland most is that he meets girls and makes them fools. Recently she has come to know about Helen, who seems to be pregnant. Her husband’s silence makes Mrs. Rowland angrier and she keeps on venting out her bitterness in her speeches. Her words are too much pungent and piercing to her sensitive husband. She fails to understand the predicament of a jobless husband. If she had problems with him, she could have made a choice of taking divorce from him. But she did not do so but drove him to take a drastic step of committing suicide. He may be intolerable for her, but he did not utter a word during the whole monologue. The readers feel his presence by some sounds coming from the bedroom as we hear groans and the sound of falling chair, etc.

Thus we may conclude that the writer has very successfully brought about the deep tension that is found in married life these days.

Q2. Justify the title of the one-act play “Before Breakfast’.

Ans. The title of the one-act play ‘Before Breakfast’ is quite appropriate. There is only one active character in this one-act play, that does no action but speaks about the person whose presence is felt. This character, who can be called the protagonist, is Mrs. Rowland. Her monologue centres on her husband. Mrs. Alfred.

It is morning time and Mrs. Rowland is about to prepare breakfast for herself and, of course, for her husband also. Her monologue ends up with her last expression of concern ‘Alfred’ and that is before her husband’s breakfast. The motif (idea) of breakfast recurs (is repeated) in Mrs. Rowland’s monologue several times.

She tells him tauntingly that there is not much material present in the kitchen for preparing breakfast. She says, ‘All we got this morning is bread and butter and coffee;…’ She has old stale bread. After preparing it, she slams the loaf of  bread on the table.’  She utter: ‘The bread's stale. I hope you'll like it. You don't deserve any better,…’

Then she tells him that the coffee will be ready in a minute and she will not wait for him to come there.

After that she sips her coffee and keeps on speaking her sarcastic words about her husband. who is supposed to be sleeping in his bed room.

She seems to be frustrated from her own married life. She also utters as to why she should suffers. She taunts her husband by calling him a good-for-nothing fellow and even a half man. She says that it is because of her they are not dying of hunger. She does sewing job to earn some money. We also find that she feels concerned for her husband when she hears some groans. She thinks that he has made a cut while shaving his face.

There are several reasons for Mrs. Rowland’s anger and frustration. Her husband is jobless. She thinks that he does not go in search of job. He wastes his time with his useless friends in writing useless poems and short stories. He is a drunkard and is in the habit of pawning the valuables of the house. Recently, he has pawned a watch. There is nothing in the house now to know about time. Another thing that irritates Mrs. Rowland most is that he meets girls and makes them fools. Recently she has come to know about Helen, who seems to be pregnant. Her husband’s silence makes Mrs. Rowland angrier and she keeps on venting out her bitterness in her speeches. Her words are too much pungent and piercing to her sensitive husband.

At last she hears a sound of something falling in Mr. Alfred’s bedroom. She runs to the door feeling much worried and calls pathetically ‘Alfred’.

Her monologue ends up with a sting in the tail. The audience or the readers is left to guess what would have happened.

Thus the whole monologue of Mrs. Rowland belongs to before breakfast time. Thus the title of this one-act play is quite appropriate.

Q3. Discuss ‘Before Breakfast as a dramatic monologue.

Ans. Of course, the one-act play ‘Before Breakfast’ is a dramatic monologue. It is a monologue because all the speeches in the play are delivered by only one character named Mrs. Rowland. This monologue becomes dramatic when the readers/audience feels the presence of another character in the background. Such a character mostly remains silent and shapes the tone and manner of the speaker’s speech. It further brings out the thoughts and feelings of the speaker to the readers/audience. They make their point of view not only towards the speaker but also about the character that is silent.

We come to know a lot about Mrs. Rowland’s character through her speeches. She speaks a lot of sharp and hard words to make her husband involve in a quarrel. But her husband’s response is almost zero. Only one or two painful groans are heard. But the lady keeps on speaking non-stop until he takes the drastic step of committing suicide. There may be other reasons for the suicide. But here, we have to blame Mrs. Rowland for forcing her husband to kill himself. So we believe that Mrs. Rowland is not at all reasonable towards tackling her husband. Her words are too much pungent and piercing to her sensitive husband. She fails to understand the predicament of a jobless husband. If she had problems with him, she could have made a choice of taking divorce from him. But she did not do so but drove him to take a drastic step of committing suicide. He may be intolerable for her, but he did not utter a word during the whole monologue. He may have faults that were intolerable for her. He is jobless, drunkard and is in the habit of pawning the valuables of the house. Recently, he has pawned a watch. There is nothing in the house now to know about time. Another thing that irritates Mrs. Rowland most is that he meets girls and makes them fools. Recently she has come to know about Helen, who seems to be pregnant. But Mrs. Rowland’s apathetic attitude towards her husband cannot be condoned (forgiven/exempted). Thus ‘Before Brekafast’ is a dramatic monologue and it reminds us of Robert Browning’s several dramatic monologues also.

B.      Short Answer-type Questions in 100 words each:

Q1. What do you learn about the family background of the Rowland’s from the play ‘Before Breakfast’?

Ans. In this play, there is only one character and she is Mrs. Rowland. The presence of her husband is felt only through her monologue. She keeps on speaking till the play ends a sad note. She speaks about her husband more than she tells us about his or her own family. We just come to know from Mrs. Rowland’s monologue that her husband’s father was a millionaire. But he was under big debt when he died. Her husband was a Harvard graduate. She also speaks about her family’s humble background. She says that her father was just a grocer. But he was an honest person, who never cheated anyone.

Q2.Why does Mrs. Rowland not want to leave her house and go back to her parents?

Ans. Mrs. Rowland vents out (expresses) her bitterness towards her husband in her monologue. It does not mean that she does not have any love or concern for her husband. She had made her own choice to marry a millionaire’s only son, Mr. Rowland. She was happy until she came to know that he did nothing but drink a lot and waste his time with his useless friends. In fact, she thinks of her family’s respect. She does not want to bring a bad name to her family and, of course’ to herself also by abandoning her husband. She does not want to prove that her marriage was an utter failure. These may be the reasons in her mind for not leaving her house and go back to her parents.

Q3. Comment on Mrs. Rowland’s attitude towards her husband.

Ans. Mrs. Rowland’s attitude towards her husband is not so good. She keeps on venting out her bitterness in her speeches. Her words are too much pungent and piercing to her sensitive husband. She fails to understand the predicament of a jobless husband. If she had problems with him, she had a choice of taking divorce from him. But she does not do so but drives him to take a drastic step of committing suicide. He may be intolerable to her, but he did not utter a word during the whole monologue. The readers feel his presence by some sounds coming from the bedroom as we hear groans and the sound of falling chair, etc. Her attitude is apathetic (unsympathetic) to her husband.

Q4. Why does Mrs. Rowland shrieks and come running out of the bedroom at the end of the play?

Ans. Mrs. Rowland shrieks and comes running out of the bedroom at the end of the play. This does not happen all of a sudden. It is Mrs. Rowland’s bitter remarks about her husband that lead to the tragic end of the play. Her husband is jobless. He is a drunkard, who pawns the valuables of the house. She thinks that he does not go in search of job. He only wastes his time by sitting with his idle friends. She also blames him for befooling girls like Helen, who is pregnant now. She talks about his family tauntingly. Her bitter words seem to drive Mr. Alfred to take a drastic step of committing suicide. She realises this when she hears a sound of something fallen to the floor in her husband’s bedroom. It makes her run shrieking out of the bedroom.

Q5. How do you think that Mrs. Rowland’s dreams are shattered according to her?

Ans. Mrs. Rowland says that she married Mr. Alfred by her own choice. He was said to be the only son of a millionaire. Her husband was also a Howard graduate. He was a poet and short story writer. After her marriage, Mrs. Rowland’s dreams were shattered. She came to know that her husband was a wine addict and jobless too. According to her, he does not go in search of job. Instead, he wastes his time with his idle friends. He writes worthless poems and short-stories that no one is going to buy. In addition, he meets girls and befools them. His latest victim is Helen. She also tells us that his father was under a lot of debt. It is she who is keeping the household go on somehow. Thus her dreams of a rich and luxurious life are shattered.

Q6. Describe the tragic end of the play ‘Before Breakfast’.

Ans. The play ‘Before Breakfast’ ends up at a very tragic note that even Mrs. Rowland had never expected.

We know that she keeps on speaking in the whole play. But at times, she stops to listen to her husband’s responses. But those are only some sounds. Towards the end of the play, she hears the sound of something dripping on the floor. After that she hears as if a chair has overturned. It was soon followed by a thudding sound.  It alarmed her. She rushed to look into the room. What she saw inside made her frantic. She ran outside the house crying loudly. Here the play ends. The reader/audience is left to imagine that Mr. Alfred must have committed suicide. Thus the play ends at a very tragic note.

 

C.      Answer the following questions in two or three sentences:

Q1.What does Mrs. Rowland do to fend for her family?

Ans. Mrs. Rowland’s husband is jobless. So in this case, she has to run her family. She does sewing job to earn some money to make food and fulfils necessary requirements of the house.

Q2.Why does Mrs. Rowland feel that nobody will give her husband a job?

Ans. Mrs. Rowland feels that no one will give her husband a job because he usually did not shave his face. He remained in bed for most of time. He did not look decent. So his wife assumed that no one will give him a job.

Q3. In what way, according to Mrs. Rowland, is her father different from her father-in-law?

Ans. Mrs. Rowland says that her father was quite different from her father-in-law. Her father ran a grocery shop. He was not so rich but he was an honest. Her father-in-law was said to be a millionaire. But he was under a huge (very big) debt.

Q4. What does Mrs. Rowland find in her husband’s pocket?

Ans. Mrs. Rowland was suspicious of her husband. She knew that her husband meets several girls and befools them with his poetic words. So she searched her husband’s pockets and found a letter. It was written by Helen, his recent victim.

Q5. (a) Who is Helen? (b) What makes Mrs. Rowland think that she may be an artist or a poet?

Ans. Helen is a girl who is supposed to be in love with Mr. Alfred. Mrs. Rowland found a letter from her husband’s vest coat. She read it and guessed from its style of writing and subject matter that she might be an artist or a poet.

Q6. What did Alfred do with the money that he got by pawning his watch?

Ans. In Mrs. Rowland’s opinion, Mr. Alfred was jobless drunkard and he passed his time with his idle friends. He even befooled girls. For these he required money to spend. So he used to pawn things of his house. Recently he has pawned a watch.

Q7. Why is Mrs. Rowland frustrated?

Ans. Mrs. Rowland had her own dreams and aspirations. She must have thought of a rich and luxurious life because she had married rich father’s son. But soon her dreams were shattered. Her father-in-law died in a huge debt. Mr. Alfred did nothing but waste his time in idle pursuits. He was a drunkard. He used to pawn things to spend money on wine and other bad habits. All these things were the causes of Mrs. Rowland’s frustration.

D.     Answer the following questions in one word/phrase or a sentence:

Q1.What does Mrs. Rowland do to fend for her family?

Ans. She does sewing job to earn some money to fend her family.

Q2.Why does Mrs. Rowland feel that nobody will give her husband a job?

Ans. Her husband is lazy and does not shave his face.

Q3.In what way, according to to Mrs. Rowland, is her father different from her father-in-lay?

Ans. Her father is not so rich and he is honest.

Q4. What does Mrs. Rowland find in her husband’s pocket?

Ans. She found a letter written by a girl, Helen.

Q5. (a) Who is Helen? (b) What makes Mrs. Rowland think that she may be an artist or a poet?

Ans. (a) Helen is Mr. Alfred’s a new girl friend. (b) Mrs. Rowland thought as such from the letter’s style and language.

Q6. What did Alfred do with the money that he got by pawning his watch?

Ans. He spent it on wine, etc.

Q7. Why is Mrs. Rowland frustrated?

ANs. Her husband turned out to be a jobless drunkard.